OT Georgetown legend...RIP

[Blakeon18]

John Thompson Jr. at 78 passed away.

 

[thatguyed]

Can you retitle? I thought they just cancelled or postponed the season or something.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

A gruff giant of a man. He was fun to watch on the sidelines and he knew what the heck he was doing. Sad to hear of his passing.

 

[Blakeon18]

Fair point on the prior title...wasn't thinking.

 

[Ozimoto]

Remember him prowling the sidelines of Big East games while I was in college.

 

[sivad40]

His name could've been in the title too. RIP to Coach Thompson.

 

[EricLA]

John Thompson Jr. at 78 passed away.

Thx for posting Blake. Great to see you here! Hope all is well with you!!

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lute Olson. Cliff Robinson. John Thompson. Last several days have been brutal for college basketball fans.

 

[BostonBay]

Classic battles with Calhoun in the late 80's & 90s. The AI/Ray Allen Big East Title game was one of the best games of all-time. RIP.

 

[oldude]

Back in the hay day of Big East basketball, the conference boasted the greatest head coaching lineup in college basketball: Thompson, Calhoun, Boeheim, Carnesecca, Massimino, Carlesimo and others were all great coaches and often colorful characters that made Dave Gavitt’s brainchild an enormous success.

Football ultimately killed the OBE, but for more than a decade, the Big East was the epicenter of college basketball, and Thompson’s larger than life personality was a key element in the league’s success.

 

[MilfordHusky]

RIP, Coach Thompson.

He was an unforgettable figure on the sidelines with a towel draped over his shoulder.

 

[oldude]

The most impressive thing I ever saw John Thompson do was after the 1982 NCAA championship game. Michael Jordan hit a jumper to put UNC up by 1. Georgetown had the ball with 15 seconds left when the Hoyas Fred Brown inexplicably passed the ball to UNC’s James Worthy. Afterwards, Thompson put his big arm around a disconsolate Brown and told him “You won a lot more games for me than you ever lost.“

 

[JellyBean]

One of the all-time greats!! Great person. Great Coach. Great Leader. Great Member of the Community. Inspired many people. I still remember the time he had a meeting with a powerful drug lord in the DC area and the talking heads lost their minds. Some media heads trashed Big Coach for this meeting as simply a stunt. Some media heads called Big Coach brave for this meeting. What most of us common folks said, Big Coach is doing the right thing. Just a meeting to keep his players away from the violence and drugs of that timeframe and it was a mutual sign of respect by Coach and the local drug lord. Powerful & legendary moment.

RIP, Coach John Thompson. Will be missed.

 

[Steelerone]

This is such a huge loss to not only the basketball community but to our world as a whole. John Thompson was a giant not only in size but in stature. He more than held his own against some of the top coach's in the game at that time and put Georgetown basketball on his shoulders and on the map of top teams. He was also an outspoken leader on social rights at a time when too many people stayed silent. RIP Big John. Prayers to his family.

 

[Alydar]

My brother, a Hoya grad, sent me a couple well-written articles about Thompson.

file:///C:/Users/lenki/Downloads/Feinstein%20on%20Thompson%20-%20Wash%20Post.pdf

file:///C:/Users/lenki/Downloads/Boswell%20on%20Thompson%20-%20Wash%20Post.pdf

 

[hoophuskee]

A Sad day. The basketball world lost a great man. .

 

[cbraarj]

Was

One of the all-time greats!! Great person. Great Coach. Great Leader. Great Member of the Community. Inspired many people. I still remember the time he had a meeting with a powerful drug lord in the DC area and the talking heads lost their minds. Some media heads trashed Big Coach for this meeting as simply a stunt. Some media heads called Big Coach brave for this meeting. What most of us common folks said, Big Coach is doing the right thing. Just a meeting to keep his players away from the violence and drugs of that timeframe and it was a mutual sign of respect by Coach and the local drug lord. Powerful & legendary moment.

RIP, Coach John Thompson. Will be missed.

Was that the former Mayor lol!

 

[cbraarj]

Was

One of the all-time greats!! Great person. Great Coach. Great Leader. Great Member of the Community. Inspired many people. I still remember the time he had a meeting with a powerful drug lord in the DC area and the talking heads lost their minds. Some media heads trashed Big Coach for this meeting as simply a stunt. Some media heads called Big Coach brave for this meeting. What most of us common folks said, Big Coach is doing the right thing. Just a meeting to keep his players away from the violence and drugs of that timeframe and it was a mutual sign of respect by Coach and the local drug lord. Powerful & legendary moment.

RIP, Coach John Thompson. Will be missed.

Was that the former Mayor lol!

 

[FanFromMaine]

Thompson trivia: why did he play his college ball at Providence?

 

[dogged1]

Back in the hay day of Big East basketball, the conference boasted the greatest head coaching lineup in college basketball: Thompson, Calhoun, Boeheim, Carnesecca, Massimino, Carlesimo and others were all great coaches and often colorful characters that made Dave Gavitt’s brainchild an enormous success.

Football ultimately killed the OBE, but for more than a decade, the Big East was the epicenter of college basketball, and Thompson’s larger than life personality was a key element in the league’s success.

Can't like this post enough. Those were great times, as the song goes, "we thought they'd never end".

I hate what happened to the best college basketball conference in America. I hate what conference realignment did to UConn.

I would say more but the point of this thread is to honor the passing of a good man and a wonderful coach. RIP Coach Thompson.